Ask any recently qualified PT and they’ll tell you that if you want to achieve hypertrophy (muscle growth), then keeping all of your movements in the eight-t0-12 rep range is the key. That’s long been the ‘sweet spot’, despite protestations from credible coaches and bodybuilders that everything from heavy sets of three, to burnout sets of 20 reps will result in equal, if not superior mass gains.
But they can’t all be right, can they? Well, they just might be.
Recent studies have shown that when it comes to muscle gain, the weights and rep ranges you employ in your training matter far less than the overall effort you’re putting in to each set. Sounds obvious, right? So why do so many men struggle to see progress in the gym?
The study seems to show that whatever dumbbells you’re curling, and for however many reps, what really matters is how many reps you’re performing in the ‘growth zone’ — those final few reps as you begin to close in on muscular failure. If the majority of your sets are essentially glorified warm-ups, you may be guilty of ‘junk volume’ and could only really be clocking in a dozen or so effective reps, throughout your entire workout.
Sounds like Mohammed Ali was onto something when he said ‘I don’t start counting ’til it starts hurting’ after all.
The fix? Use techniques that ensure you spend as much time as possible in the painful, but productive growth zone. One such technique is ‘The 250% Method’, which guarantees a serious, growth-inducing burn.
We’ll explain the protocol below, before serving you up a vicious but delicious chest, back and arms workout, which promises the perfect upper-body pump.
- After a thorough full-body warm-up, get to work on your first movement. Start light and quickly work your way up the weights, performing short, easy sets of 5-6 reps with no rest, to get the blood pumping.
- Once you hit a weight that feels pretty heavy for 6, under fatigue, keep those weights and start a stopwatch.
- After two-minutes rest, perform an all out set-pushing as hard as you can until you can’t crank out another rep with good form.
- Whatever rep you finish on, your goal now is to hit 250% (or two and a half times) that number, as quickly as possible. For instance – if you manage 10 reps, keep taking short breaks of 15-20 seconds, performing set after set, even if they’re doubles or singles, until you hit 25 total reps.
- Once completed, take a rest and move onto the next movement, repeating the protocol.
- Stick with the same weights next session, once you can easily hit your previous reps, go heavier.
Using this method, you’ll spend the lion’s share of your total workout in the growth zone. That’ll ensure you’re working at a solid, muscle-building intensity and waving goodbye to useless junk volume, for good.
This technique is best employed using an upper body, lower body or push, pull, legs split. You should also make sure you’re taking plenty of time off between sessions and fuelling your body adequately to recover from the brutal mass building workouts.
1. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Lay on a bench set at a 45-degree angle, holding two dumbbells above your head (A). Slowly lower both bells over four seconds, keeping your elbows at a slight angle to your torso, until both dumbbells touch your chest (A). Explosively press the bells back to full lockout and repeat.
2. Chin-ups (or Lat Pulldown)
Grab a pull-up bar with your palms facing your body. Lift your feet off the floor and hang freely with straight arms (A). Pull yourself up by flexing your elbows and pinching your shoulders together. When your chin passes the bar pause (B), before lowering to the starting position. Try not to swing too much. If you can’t perform 10-plus chin-ups, use a band for assistance or jump on the lat pulldown machine.
3. Dips
Jump up on two parallel bars or gymnastics rings with your palms facing inward and your arms straight (A). Use two boxes or the backs of two sturdy chairs if you’re at home. Slowly lower until your elbows are at right angles, ensuring they don’t flare outward (B). Drive yourself back up to the top and repeat.
4. Chest-supported Dumbbell Rows
Set an adjustable bench to around 45 degrees or prop a flat bench up with a box. Position yourself face down with your chest on the pad, holding a pair of dumbbells (A). Staying tight to the bench, row both dumbbells up towards your hips, pause (B) and slowly lower before repeating.
5. Tricep Extensions
Grab a lighter pair of dumbbells and lay back down on your bench, locking the dumbbells out overhead (A). Bend at the elbows, slowly lowering the bells towards the sides of your head, while keeping your upper arms locked in place. Stop just short of the bells touching your shoulders (B) before pressing back up explosively. Repeat.
6. Barbell Curl
Stand tall with a light barbell, your palms facing towards you, shoulder-width apart (A). With minimal momentum, curl the bar upwards towards your chin (B). Squeeze here and lower the weights under control taking a three count to bring it down. Repeat.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
